Submitted by dan5280 t3_xy1n3z in personalfinance
I have a job offer for a government contractor (W2 with full benefits) and also one for a GS13 job. The contractor job would take home about 25% more after taxes, insurance, etc. The schedule for the GS job would be better on the family, and we'd likely have to hire someone to do after school care at least a few days a week with the contractor job. I'd also be eligible for a pension if I stayed for 5 years as a GS (I have 15 years of military time I can buy back).
I'm 36, wife works full time, 3 young kids. We're pretty well off right now - only debt is a mortgage and even after the recent market bloodbath we're sitting at around 500k in retirement accounts. I'll also likely get a small military pension that I can collect starting around age 56. We don't live extravagantly by any means and save quite a bit.
Part of me wants to go for the fatter check now and maybe be able to retire a year or two earlier, but the other part thinks it's not worth it because it will likely be harder on the family. I also worry somewhat about a recession causing the contractor job to go away.
Thoughts?
Edit: thanks y'all for all the feedback so far (except for that one guy who thought I was humble bragging about needing career advice). To address a couple recurring questions/comments:
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I didn't leave the military at 15 years. I got off active duty at ~11 years and am a current reservist with a bunch of active reserve time that I can buy back, for a total of about 15
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Because I'm a reservist I would be able to use Tricare with the contractor job, but not with the GS job. Premiums and deductibles are a lot cheaper with Tricare, so the health insurance side of benefits would be cheaper with the contractor job
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PTO with the contractor is 20 days
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Contractor job is through a large firm, and it's a brand new contract. Not sure how long it's for
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Contractor offers 6% 401k matching. GS is 5% for TSP
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GS job would be with DOD, in almost exactly the same role as I'm currently working as a reservist. They're essentially turning my current military job into a GS13. It's pretty much a dead end as far as career progression in this office, but I also don't expect to be in this location for more than 5 years regardless so I'm not super concerned about that
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Not sure about how much after school care would be. Call it $50 a day based on what we currently pay for here and there care, but I don't know if needing something long term would make that higher or lower.